Greece to roman road

Chapter 251 Agricultural Issues

Emmanuelle's suggestion was recognized by many nobles.

Seeing that many Greek upstarts agreed to unite to develop agriculture in Macedonia, Constantine was naturally relieved.

"I can tell you in advance that in the next few years, food prices will remain high." In order to increase everyone's enthusiasm for developing agriculture, Constantine took the initiative to remind everyone.

"Soon, the Grain Reserve Bureau under the government department will purchase unlimited amounts of grain and prepare grain reserves in advance."

"So, whether it's wheat, rye, corn, potatoes, sugar beets, etc., or cotton, tobacco, it doesn't matter what crops you plant on your own land, everyone, you can plant them, I promise , these crops will be hot commodities internationally.”

In fact, Constantine and Venizelos did not reach an agreement on the issue of preparing food reserves in advance.

However, Constantine insisted on considering the possibility of food shortages that Greece might face in the future. Venizelos had no choice but to reluctantly agree to Constantine and agreed to the Grain Reserve Bureau to complete this task.

At present, the Greek government's fiscal deficit remains high. A war has just ended, and the government's years of accumulation have been exhausted. It has also issued hundreds of millions of treasury bonds to the three major banks in Greece.

Due to Bulgaria's hostile actions on the border, even though the war has ended, it is still forced to maintain more than 200,000 troops, not counting the more than 100,000 indigenous troops in Congo that are being assembled.

The government's expenditure on daily military consumption has not been reduced, but has been increasing.

Venizelos believes that it is almost impossible that Constantine's so-called Greece will face a crisis of food shortage in the coming world war.

The reason is that even if a war affecting the entire Europe does break out, Greece can timely transport food from the Congo through shipping to fill the gap in Greece.

Venizelos believes that when fiscal revenue is stretched, money is needed in all aspects, and it is inappropriate to spend huge sums of money to reserve food.

Nevertheless, Venizelos agreed to Constantine's insistence that the government speed up the process of guiding and encouraging people to develop the agricultural potential of Macedonia.

Constantine considered that once war really came, the Mediterranean region would also be affected. For example, in the original historical time and space, German and Austro-Hungarian submarines could also wreak havoc in the Mediterranean.

and Greece’s rapidly growing population.

Therefore, Constantine now openly encourages everyone to develop their own fiefdoms.

Constantine also agreed with Emmanuel's suggestion of raising funds to build a fertilizer factory and a seed company.

From the end of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, it was a period when the chemical fertilizer industry was booming, and people had clearly realized the important role of fertilizers in crop growth.

Fertilizer is also an important imported commodity for Greece. Previously, Greece imported approximately 8 million drachmas worth of phosphate fertilizer and potassium fertilizer from the UK every year to supply Greece's domestic agricultural needs.

The high cost of imported fertilizers is also an important reason why Greek farmers are reluctant to grow wheat.

"Speaking of chemical fertilizers, I remembered that I heard that Hubble in Germany invented a method of using air to synthesize ammonia, which can be used to make nitrogen fertilizers," Constantine said.

If Greece can learn this technology, as long as there is sufficient nitrogen fertilizer, there will be no fear that Greek agriculture will not be able to develop rapidly, and it will play a positive role in getting rid of the embarrassing state of Greek agriculture.

Even though Constantine didn't know much about chemistry, he had heard of the Hubble air nitrogen fixation method. After all, it was known as "a technology for obtaining food from the air."

The Midas touch is indeed a trick, but pie in the sky is not impossible.

Ammonia synthesis technology from air is pie in the sky.

The reason why Constantine was so eager to promote agricultural development in Macedonia was not only due to war factors, but also concerns about the growth of the Greek population.

Greece's population is rising rapidly under the government's policy package to encourage childbirth.

Especially after this war, it is not surprising that Greece will usher in a baby boom. Those young Greeks who participated in the war will be the main force of this baby boom.

In the past, Greece had a small population, so even if it imported some food from the international market, there would be no problem.

Now that the population of Greece is growing rapidly every year, the serious problem of food production has to be taken seriously.

According to Constantine's estimates, Greece's population would soon exceed ten million.

As for why people who have participated in wars are more willing to have children, well, it is probably because after witnessing the cruelty of war, people prefer a peaceful life and realize the beauty of life.

As the population increases, Greece's domestic food production has become an urgent problem that needs to be solved.

Constantine naturally thought of the incomparable important role of chemical fertilizers in the development of modern agriculture.

The human population growth curve is actually accompanied by the use of chemical fertilizers.

At the beginning of 1900, the total population of the world was about 200 million. In about a century, this number quickly expanded to 70-80 billion.

If Greece could produce enough fertilizer quickly, agricultural problems would be solved.

But after hearing this, Emmanuel shook his head and said: "This technology, I heard from the Intelligence Department, seems to be not very mature yet, and the product is relatively expensive."

"It is said that Haber and BASF (German chemical giant) cooperated to establish a factory in Ludwig for production."

Speaking of this, Emmanuel spread his hands and said helplessly: "According to the information from the intelligence office, the Germans value this technology very much, and it is impossible to get it."

"In addition, this technology is not yet perfect. According to information obtained by the Intelligence Office, the products produced by this new technology are relatively expensive. Most of them are used as chemical products, and only a very small part are used. The Germans use it to make fertilizer.”

This answer naturally made Constantine a little disappointed. For example, ammonia synthesis technology can be used to produce explosives and is suitable for war. It can also make fertilizers and increase food production. It is a dual-use technology for both military and civilian use. Constantine Ding was naturally salivating.

If it can be introduced successfully, Greece will not need to import a large amount of saltpeter as raw material for ammunition production every year.

No way, saltpeter, an important raw material for the production of gunpowder, was almost monopolized by the British.

In saltpeter, an important commodity, the British controlled trade channels.

At this time, almost all saltpeter on the international market was under the control of the British.

If enough saltpeter could not be imported from Britain, it would be impossible for the army to fight the war because there would not be enough gunpowder.

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